Events…Concerts…Art…Life

June 17, 2016

Leon Bridges Laying Down Soul For A Sold Out Crowd! @ The Pageant – June 8th, 2016

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So I’m noticing this fantastic thing that is currently going on in music right now, and I can also tell I’m getting older because it’s like history is repeating it’s self a bit. Last week Leon Bridges played to a packed house and if you are not familiar with him I can really only describe him as soul R & B artists. He is in the likes of artists like Nathaniel Rateliff and Charles Bradley, who has actually been at it for awhile. It’s fun for me to observe this revisit to a musical genre that so many greats like James Brown, Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, and Aretha Franklin made famous in the mid to late 60’s that evidently many hipsters just glazed over. I love to see any artist expanding on a sound that is classic by putting their new spin on it, and Leon is definitely fitting the bill tremendously in those regards. I really hope that this new generation of music listeners take the time to not only listen to Leon but use his influences as a schooling. Not everything that is new is better, never forget the history behind music. It’s fascinating! I discovered soul by stumbling across my parents copy of The Big Chill Soundtrack. It came out in 1983 and for some reason when CD clubs hit big in the 90’s everyone and their brother had a copy of this soundtrack. The soundtrack was filled with hits by Marvin Gaye, Three Dog Night, and Aretha Franklin. Then in 1994 I heard a live cover of Pearl Jam doing “Sitting on a Dock of a Bay” by Otis Redding and I was blown away. I started pilfering through my grandparents 45 record collection to experience this older style of music that I couldn’t help but move to when I was listening to it. I was an amazing experience to have Leon Bridges remind me of this as well as to get completely lost in the sincere delivery of his original material. I support this guy whole heatedly and can’t wait to see how this resurgence in soul influenced music starts to shape the industry over the next year.